Clients search for salon
[attach]6664[/attach]Previous clients of colourist Margarita Tsopotos and stylist Albertas Pavilonis hunted down the pair after they opened Maral Salon in August.
“Some of them knew that we would be in this neighbourhood and so they would ride their bike along from the start of Leslieville down looking for where we were,” says Tsopotos, who trained in Canada, Italy and Spain. “For quite a few weekends when we first opened we’d have people coming in the door just huffing and puffing and they’d be like, ‘I found you.’ ”
Located on Queen Street E. at Carlaw Avenue, the hair salon is named after the beginning of their first names: Mar—garita and Al—bertas. With 20 years of combined industry experience working for others, and over eight years spent working alongside one another, opening their own business was a natural progression.
“We’ve won awards, we’ve worked with local celebrities and have done it all pretty much so opening our own salon was just the next milestone, the next chapter,” Tsopotos says, adding the salon is also close to their home.
“We saw good qualities in each other and when it came to business I think we both had the same direction,” Pavilonis adds.
Whether it’s for a toddler or a 92-year-old client, they aim to create a custom look for everyone. As for the décor, they wanted to portray a clean, modern and fresh look to serve as a blank canvass for people’s hair.
Being a stylist is like creating a moving sculpture that is displayed on someone’s head for the next month or two, says Pavilonis, who trained in both Italy and Spain. His outlook stems from an artistic background and growing up with a family of painters and sculptors.
[attach]6665[/attach]“We don’t just do one person who does both colour and haircuts,” he says. “We specialize — she does colour and I do hair cutting. I think we both believe that you can only be great at one thing, that’s what we want to continue.”
While they both discovered a passion for hair at an early age, Tsopotos used to create styles with her mother’s hair when she was younger.
“The best part of the job is when your client is so thrilled with what you’ve done and they look great and they feel great, that’s the ultimate reward for us,” she says. “You can see some people work on a project for months at a time whereas for us we see that result quite a few times a day and that’s the biggest reward for us to see that satisfaction.”